Vandal pride, representation and student services are part of the platform Tanner McClain and Madison Fitzgerald are running on for ASUI president and vice president.
The pair is running against Katie Hettinga and Olivia Niemi who are also seeking the presidency.
Both sophomores at UI, McClain and Fitzgerald served as ASUI senators from spring to fall of 2021. During their time as senators, they were involved in an ASUI sponsored project that brought Uber, a mobility service provider, to the Moscow campus. McClain said for student services, transportation is an attribute to that part of the platform, which involves a lack of parking for students.
“I believe ASUI can help solve this issue by providing more public transportation,” McClain said. “We want to talk with the Parking and Transportation Department and give decreased (cost-wise) permits to students who decide to drive up and be drivers (for) Vandal Uber.”
McClain said his office would like to grow Vandal Uber. Depending on the availability of the app, there are two to three drivers in Moscow. McClain and Fitzgerald said they’d like to improve safety on campus by encouraging public transportation.
Student services also includes promoting timely grading for students and encouraging involvement with career services.
Another part of their platform includes Vandal pride. Events they want to put on related to Vandal pride are students and faculty dressing in UI gear on Fridays and ways to get the student body interested in attending events.
For representation, McClain said this means representing the interests of all students and uniting all colleges across the state of Idaho. Fitzgerald said communicating with local legislators to discuss what’s happening on campus is important for the discussion on alleged social justice ideology indoctrination in education.
“I think conducting more student surveys and getting actual data that we can send to legislators to state this is not what’s happening here on campus,” Fitzgerald said. “Also, I think that it’s important to make sure that more student voices are heard within the legislator and making sure that they recognize that a bunch of these programs that they no longer want on campus are so beneficial to so many students and for them to potentially understand the ramifications of taking these programs away.”
Fitzgerald said they are excited for the opportunity to campaign.
“To have the opportunity to be able to run, we’re really excited about this campus and the future of what ASUI can do for the students,” Fitzgerald said. “Go Vandals.”
McClain sees the potential in their ideas for benefiting campus.
“I truly believe that there’s so much potential ASUI can bring to this campus, especially now that COVID is coming down,” McClain said. “We can make campus lively again; through these big events and bringing more transportation and we can really contribute so much to the university and to the students.”
Sierra Pesnell can be reached at [email protected]